Official Languages committee  This document shows that $1.6 million goes to court cases.

Official Languages committee  It's testimony from the officials affidavits.

Official Languages committee  Fine. In accordance with Standing Order 108(1), that the Standing Committee on Official Languages invite, as soon as possible, the Commissioner of Official Languages, Mr. Graham Fraser, followed by the Hon. Josée Verner, Minister responsible for the La Francophonie and Official

Official Languages committee  No, it is not approved by the minister; it is approved by the Treasury Board.

Official Languages committee  Monies attributed come from Privy Council budgets in order to avoid ministerial interference.

Official Languages committee  Fundamentally, there are two elements concerning plans and priorities. Minister Verner can appear and answer our questions regarding the plans and priorities of Heritage Canada with respect to official languages. With this blue book we can analyze the Report on Plans and Prioriti

Official Languages committee  Not on the subject of the Commissioner's Office.

Official Languages committee  Then there's been a misunderstanding.

Official Languages committee  This is normally true, when it concerns the department. However, in this case, it concerns the Commissioner's Office. The Commissioner is responsible for tabling his own budgetary needs for the upcoming year. In this case, it is the Commissioner himself who must justify these dem

Official Languages committee  It's very simple. In offering its services, the federal government relies on the first official language spoken criterion—

Official Languages committee  —which isn't the same thing as mother tongue.

Official Languages committee  No, it's not knowledge, it's the first official language spoken. That may be the mother tongue, but not necessarily. That means, for example, that, in Quebec, given the large percentage of immigrants—

Official Languages committee  ... for whom English is the first language spoken, as a result of which the statistics on mother tongue don't accurately reflect the situation of Anglophones in Quebec. So the federal government relies on the first official language spoken criterion.

Official Languages committee  That corresponds to approximately 920,000 persons in Quebec, according to the 2001 census...

Official Languages committee  ...and to approximately the same percentage of Francophones outside Quebec, also according to the 2001 census.